A weekend with two races

On Saturday we did a race called Ringenloppet. A roadrace with crosswinds on a 11 kilometer long lap. A total of 154 kilometers, but I was only racing 111 of them. It was a hard race and only 28 of the 81 who started the race finished it. My legs were empty when I decided to call it a day, but for the first time on a race this year I felt that I had the power to really participate and be a part of the actual racing in the front. All the other races this year I have started and finished races, but always with the feeling that I only could fight to stay with the peloton. This saturday was different and after taking an easy first lap finding myself in the third group after the first long crosswind section I told myself to be in the front during the second lap because the bunch would probably split up again. There were gaps also on lap 2 but in the beginning of lap three I was in the front with some other strong guys and we were going so fast that our front group came down to 10-12 riders. I spent two laps in that front group and when the bunch caught us I knew that an other group would probably get away in the next crosswind section. I tried really hard to get back to the front but I was the last guy who didn't make it to the front group. That group stayed away for the rest of the race...
After 10 of the 14 laps my legs didn't wanna race anymore. When I was dropped by the bunch it was about 25 riders big. So a lot of guys had to quit before me. Although I Did Not Finish, it was my best race so far this year.

One of the reasons to DNF was that we had a race on Sunday as well. I could have done the 154 kilometers on Saturday, but then I would have had nothing left for Elisedals GP on Sunday. Sunday's race was a fast criterium. 35 laps and 58 kilometers with an average speed of 45.9 km/h. Legs didn't like what I was doing in the beginning but with seven laps to go I attacked. No big move, but at least I was in the race again. The last three laps I only tried to stay near the front. Comming in to the last corner I had to brake and lost some speed there and finished in 19:th spot in the 59 man strong field.

Next race for me is SWE-Cup Kalmar GP in two weeks. A crit race in the city of Kalmar, I'm hoping to have the same legs as I had this saturday, otherwise it will be a very hard day.